Green Bay, WI - Ten-year-old Kennedy Corpus has a rock-solid excuse for missing the last day of school: a personal note to her teacher from President Barack Obama. Her father, John Corpus of Green Bay, stood to ask Obama about health care during the president's town hall-style meeting at Southwest High School on Thursday. He told Obama that his daughter was missing school to attend the event...

Ulster County, NY - The director of Ulster County’s health department was put on administrative leave Thursday because county officials said he allowed the department to fall behind on inspections, did not update computer filing technology and did not hire workers to fill vacant staff positions. The longtime director, Dean Palen, was escorted out of the county office building with his wife...

Washington - Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and John Cornyn, R-Texas each spent more than $140,000 on travel in the first half of the fiscal year, an analysis shows. The senators spent about 10 times as much on air flights as some of their colleagues. Cornyn had highest travel bill in the Senate, partly by spending more than $38,000 on a St. Michaels, Md., retreat for 59 staffers and by taking...

Damascus, Syria - Former President Jimmy Carter today reiterated that there can be no peace between Israel and the Palestinians without involving the militant group Hamas. His comments came shortly before he met with the militant group's Syrian-based leader, Khaled Mashaal. Carter met with Mashaal twice under the Bush administration, angering some in the U.S. government who said he was...

Mea She'arim, Israel - - Behind the shabby stone buildings and through the dusty streets of the capital's haredi Mea She'arim neighborhood, Yoel "Yoelish" Kraus is preparing for another day on the job. "This is my bunker," he says jokingly, as he leads the way into to a fluorescent-lit grouping of small rooms off a side street. Old books and bottles are scattered about and he sits...

Chicago, IL - In an interview on a liberal satellite radio show, Rev. Jeremiah Wright attempted to clarify his comments to the Newport News, Virginia. Daily-Press about “them Jews” preventing him from speaking to President Obama. “Let me say like Hillary, I misspoke,” Wright said. “Let me just say: Zionists.” Wright said “I’m not talking about all Jews, all people of the...

Tampa, FL - Mayor Pam Iorio has agreed to halt proclamations of an annual day in Tampa for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an organization that says it seeks to represent the interests of mainstream Muslims in the U.S., but has been accused of terrorist links. Iorio has proclaimed a "CAIR Day" in Tampa each fall since 2005. The organization has an active chapter in Tampa. Among...

Albany, NY - An appeals judge is issuing a temporary restraining order to prevent a new coalition from taking control of the New York Senate at least until Friday afternoon. Democrats want to block any change in Senate leadership after Republicans and two rogue Democrats launched a power struggle Monday. The ruling late Thursday afternoon by Appellate Division Justice Karen Peters blocks...

Brooklyn, NY - Prompted by swine flu fears, a Brooklyn hospital is sharply restricting visits in its pediatrics and maternity wards. As the H1N1 virus continued to claim victims - three adult deaths reported yesterday bring the city's total to 12 - New York Methodist Hospital defended its new policy. The Park Slope facility banned all visitors except husbands or significant others in the...

Washington - Authorities are charging an 88-year-old white supremacist with first-degree murder in the shooting death of a guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial and Museum. A complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Washington Thursday accuses James W. Von Brunn of the premeditated murder of Security Guard Stephen T. Johns. An affidavit filed in court said officers recovered a notebook from...

New York, NY - New York City plans to trap and kill as many as 2,000 Canada geese this summer in an attempt to avoid the type of collision that caused an airliner to ditch in the Hudson River. The hunt will take place on dozens of city properties within five miles of Kennedy and LaGuardia airports. Aviation officials have culled bird flocks on airport property for years, but this will mark...

Antwerp - A new Sefer by Rav Chaim Dovid Yoseph Weiss, the Satmar Dayan in Antwerp has hit the bookshelfs with a remarkable impact. that is accrding to Yediot Ahronot. The Sefer is titled, “Leshmiras HaGif vehaNefesh.” And it is one of the first books in the Chareidi community to tackle head-on the social maladies of contemporary times. It deals with such issues as drug abuse, cigarette...

Jerusalem - In an effort to quell haredi violence and reduce tensions, Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco has asked Mayor Nir Barkat to close the newly opened municipal parking lot on Saturdays until an alternative site could be found in the next two weeks, police and the city said late Thursday. Haredim protest opening of... The Mayor was expected to agree to the police chief's...

Kufstein, Austria - An Italian woman who arrived late for the Air France plane flight that crashed in the Atlantic last week has been killed in a car accident. Johanna Ganthaler, a pensioner from Bolzano-Bozen province, had been on holiday in Brazil with her husband Kurt and missed Air France Flight 447 after turning up late at Rio de Janeiro airport on May 31. All 228 people aboard lost...

Williamsburg, NY - Opponents of a Brooklyn redevelopment project packed a Community Board 1 meeting last night in Williamsburg, drowning out a presentation by the city’s Housing Preservation and Development office, in a battle that could influence City Council primaries in the 33rd and 34th districts this September. Roughly 50 protesters, armed with signs and a bullhorn, chanted “Open...